Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories
  • Corn plants struggle to survive in a drought-stricken farm field on July 18, 2012 near Vincennes, Indiana.
    Scott Olson/Getty Images

    It appears more of the world's largest banks are getting roped into allegations of fraud. Four big European banks have joined Barclays in the not-so-prestigious club of financial institutions being investigated for rigging a benchmark lending rate called LIBOR. Of course, this banking scandal comes on the heels of the monster JP Morgan trade-gone-bad, which has cost the bank billions of dollars. What can be done to keep these problems from happening? And more than a dozen top-tier universities are signing on to a plan that will make college more affordable — by offering some of their courses online for free.

  • Thanks to a computer glitch yesterday, some lucky travelers were able to buy United tickets from the U.S. to Hong Kong for $40.
    Nick Laham/Getty Images

    There's a growing sense among economists that the housing market has finally hit bottom, as home prices and home sales have been stabilizing in many places. There's a new report out today that's got one explanation for why companies aren't hiring the people they want to hire: A visa program to bring in the best and brightest from around the world is capped. And overseas, India has lost its ranking as the country with the most upbeat consumers, according to Nielsen. But it wasn't long ago that many thought India's growth rates could surpass those of its long-time rival, China.

  • A Yahoo! billboard is visible through trees on July 19, 2011 in San Francisco, Calif.
    Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

    Yahoo has its fifth CEO in five years. This time around, the company has selected a woman named Marissa Mayer, who has spent the last 13 years as an executive at Google. The ailing tech company reports earnings today, as does another big tech company, Intel. And the Hue-Man bookstore, the largest African-American bookstore in the country, will be close its doors at the end of this month, citing rising rents and a changing industry as primary factors.

  • Tournament flags flying in the strong afternoon breeze during the final round of the 2012 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard at Bay Hill Club and Lodge on March 25, 2012 in Orlando, Fla.
    David Cannon/Getty Images

    Grocery stores and merchants of all kinds will be sorting through the fine print this morning following a major credit card settlement that was announced late Friday. Visa, Mastercard and some big banks agreed to pay $6.6 billion to end a fight over fees they charge retailers. Microsoft has called a mystery news conference today. And the speculation is that the company will unveil new features for its software suite Office 15. And under the assumption that the Affordable Care Act will go into full effect, Northern Arizona's community health centers are anticipating a jump in demand.

  • A crocodile in an antificial pond of a private hotel near La Fortuna, in the Costa Rican rainforest 110 km northwest of San Jose.
    YURI CORTEZ/Getty Images

    It's second-quarter earnings day for JPMorgan Chase. Profit number aside, many are focused on how big a trading loss the bank suffered from the so-called 'whale' in its London office. Europe's economic crisis is hammering the euro's value, but bad news for Europe is great for American travelers. And this weekend, Santa Fe, New Mexico, hosts the world's largest folk art market. Artisans from Afghanistan to Peru come to sell their crafts — but they can also get business training to take them to the next level.

  • 'Apache', a terrier cairn stays in its hotel room at Actuel Dogs on April 19, 2011 in Vincennes, France.
    Franck Prevel/Stringer/Getty Images

    There are new figures out this morning about the number of foreclosures in the U.S. in the first half of this year, and they may shed some light on the so-far elusive housing recovery. For the past few years, China has had a much higher economic growth rates than we're seeing in the U.S., but when it releases its latest GDP figures tomorrow, forecasters are expecting the worst growth in three years. And another big warship, the USS Iowa, has opened for tourists in San Pedro, California. It's one of dozens of decommissioned ships that operate as museums around the country.

  • In Ceder Falls, Iowa, the brokerage firm Peregrine Financial filed to liquidate under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code amid accusations from federal regulators that Peregrine misused customer funds. In Washington today, the House Agriculture Committee is set to take up the Farm Bill — which sounds like legislation that's all about farming, but in fact about three-quarters of it goes to fund food stamps and other nutrition programs. And in today's Money Matters segment, we focus on the financial decisions that families face when caring for an elderly relative.

  • Microsoft Corporation Chairman Bill Gates and his wife Melinda attend a ceremony presenting them with the 2010 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
    Win McNamee/Getty Images

    Tomorrow in London, there will be a major conference organized by the British government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that aims to bring the focus back to family planning. We speak to Melinda Gates on why it is such an important cause for her and the foundation. The struggling maker of BlackBerry smartphones holds its annual shareholders meeting today in the Canadian town of Waterloo. Shareholders are hoping to hear some reassuring news. And Pepsi gets into the yogurt business.

  • A neon signs of Olympic sponsor Coca Cola glows bright on a dark wall during the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.
    Allsport Sponsor Services

    A new earnings season begins today, and all eyes will be on Alcoa, the big aluminum producer that is also a big bellwether for the rest of the economy. About 45,000 people in the U.S. will be pretty disappointed this morning when they try to go online and don't have an internet connection because of a cybercrime called "click fraud." And we speak to the director of a new documentary airing tonight on HBO about unemployment in an unexpected place: Long Island.

  • The June employment report from the Labor Department comes out today. But while today's numbers offer us a snapshot they won't give us the long-term trends — one of which is shaped like a "U." Following last week's big Supreme Court ruling on health care, states like Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina have said they won't expand Medicaid programs. And Cyndi Lauper explains how she hopes to end LGBT youth homelessness.

Mid-day Update